Tola Adeniyi’s exhibition of ignorance

Today’s article in this column was first published in in October 2017 under the same title. Its repetition here is warranted the reappearance of a notorious article published in the Tribune newspaper by a journalist and columnist called Tola Adeniyi. The sudden reappearance of that notorious article went viral on many platforms of the social media last week to the consternation of well-meaning Nigerians who had read Adeniyi’s article and today’s reaction to it two years ago. Republishing the article here is at the instance of many readers of this column who demanded its republication after reading Adeniyi’s mischievous article again online this time.

Preamble

Prophet Muhammad’s divinely guided expressions called Hadith will never cease to be axiomatic. In one of such expressions, he said: “There are three signs by which a hypocrite can be identified: when he talks he lies, when he promises he reneges and when he is trusted he betrays”. Thus, through the conduct of a hypocrite the definition of hypocrisy becomes clear. Ever since Prophet Muhammad (SAW) succinctly gave that impeccable definition of hypocrisy about one and a half millennia ago, no one else has given a better or anything similar to his. And what is true of this Hadith is equally true of all other genuine Hadith from this greatest man that ever lived. That is what makes Hadith an incomparable axiom which confirms the genuineness and impeccability of Prophet Muhammad’s Message to mankind.

Tola Adeniyi’s Article

When many Nigerian Muslim brothers and sisters called by telephone or sent text messages to yours sincerely with lamentations from different parts of the country to draw my attention to a particular article published in The Tribune newspaper of Tuesday, October 17, 2017, I thought it was a serious matter of concern. But after reading the article entitled ‘Islam and Religious Imperialism’ which appeared on page 15 of that newspaper and was written by a septuagenarian columnist called Tola Adeniyi, I knew that most of those who called or sent text messages to me did not know anything about the author of that article. If they knew, they would not have been that worried.

Ordinarily, as a journalist and a columnist, I stopped reading Tola Adeniyi’s writings about two decades ago. Although this veteran is a professional colleague, his column is not what I can allow to consume the least of my leisure time. There are columnists that I do not miss on a weekly basis and there are columnists that I do not waste my valuable time to read. He belongs to the latter group.

For decades, this man had been a newspaper columnist under a pen name (Aba Saheed) in ‘The Tribune’ newspaper. There is no doubt that as an endowed journalist he is gifted in language communication through writing, his refusal to address a major question mark on the ethics of the profession has rendered his status as veteran diminutive.

His column

Like any other columnist, this man has his own readers no doubt but I do not belong to that pedestal of readership. As a matter of fact, if he had not ignorantly attacked the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) with a sinister motive, I would not have wasted my time on reacting to such a pedestrian article. But as the chief spokesman for that Apex Muslim body in Nigeria, I consider it my duty to put the records straight and save some innocent newspaper readers from being misinformed about Islam in Nigeria by someone who is claiming to be a Muslim just by birth.

At least, any good Muslim who thoroughly understands Islam will know that claiming to be a Muslim because of birth or name may cast doubt on the genuineness of his Islam. Such a public announcement is a way of seeking relevance where there is a possible benefit. That is what some parasites in the profession called Journalism use their pens to achieve.

Strange posture

If anything is strange in Tola Adeniyi’s article under review, it is the Age at which he wrote it. Those who have read the article may take time to go through it once again and they will discover that it contains no substance worthy of any serious attention. That was the practice in the 1970s, 80s and even 1990s which the likes of Tola Adeniyi are yet to realize that has become anachronistic in the noble profession today.

Observation

By writing such an article at this time around, what Tola Adeniyi did was not just to exhibit his blatant ignorance about Islam and the NSCIA but also to play a Dragon on a valueless brook under which his drummers are facelessly active. And when a Septuagenarian combines ignorance with confusion he automatically sinks into an abyss of hypocrisy where hiding behind one finger becomes an artful trick of escape. Thus, Prophet Muhammad’s Hadith quoted above is as fitting to such a man as a scepter of thorn in the hand of a despotic Monarch.

Memory lane

It will be recalled that sometime early in 2017, a press statement was issued by a so called Oodua Muslim Coalition (OMC) in some southwest print media to counsel the Southern Muslims on why and how they should disengage completely from any association with the Northern Muslims especially the NSCIA. The similarity in Tola Adeniyi’s article to that of the so called OMC is a glaring evidence of the common enclave of the devilish drummers who are bent on using proxies among the Southwest Muslims to destroy the strong chord of Muslim unity in Nigeria.

Reaction

In a reaction to the so called OMC press statement mentioned above, yours sincerely, being the official spokesman for The Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), promptly issued the following press release to silence the hypocrites and disabuse the minds of the genuine Muslim brothers and sisters in the Southwest Region. The reaction went thus: ‘The attention of the Muslim Ummah of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), has been drawn to the emergence of a fraudulent group calling itself ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition (OMC) in the Southwest of Nigeria.

Using the Southwest media to herald the arrival of its nefarious plot under the cover of Islamic religion, this amorphous group issued an unwarranted hateful press statement recently in which it attacked and blackmailed the entire Southwest Muslims calling them names and labeling them ‘Agents of Hausa Fulani of the North’.

To the best of its knowledge, as the umbrella body for all State Muslim Councils/Communities as well as Organizations in the six States of the Southwest region, MUSWEN is not aware of the existence of any group called ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition’ (OMC). The only guessable possibility about that fictitious body is that of being an agent for a chameleonic group that calls itself Afenifere in the region and is seeking to become an imperialistic impostor.

Clarification

For clarification, MUSWEN as the Southern counterpart of Jamatu Nasril Islam (JNI) in the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), has the record of all legitimate Muslim Organizations in the Southwest region, and the so-called ‘Oodua Muslim Coalition’ is not on that record. Perhaps, Tola Adeniyi’s referred maleficent article was meant to be a megaphone for the region’s town criers against Islam and the Muslims leaders.

Warning

We therefore warn all genuine Muslim Councils, Communities and Organizations in the Southwest region to beware of certain evil elements who are now parading themselves as Muslim groups with the intent of constituting a spiritual virus in the region with the evil objective of presidential election in 1993 which was annulled by the Ibrahim Babangida military regime that initiated the aborted third republic in Nigeria. But when Bashorun Abiola was arrested and detained by Sani Abacha regime, the man switched over to the Junta’s camp and became a beneficiary therein. It is only those who do not know Tola Adeniyi closely that will attach any seriousness to his writings in any newspaper. Invariably, public writings depict the mannerism of the writers.

Tola Adeniyi’s antics

Now, at about 74 years of age, the subject of Tola Adeniyi’s sadistic article being the NSCIA could come as a surprise. That subject may look real to some people in Nigeria who are also ignorant about Islam and are also claiming to be Muslims. By their acts, hypocrites are invariably known and they invariably end up in a dungeon of oblivion.Those who are still in doubt about this assertion may ask the Tola Adeniyi himself and his likes of the whereabouts of an Indian born Briton, Salmon Rushdie, was carried away by his deceptive literary prowess to write a self-ruining book entitled ‘Satanic Forces’ in 1989 which paved his way to permanent oblivion.

It is hoped that the upcoming writers will learn a lesson from the inglorious end of such men.

Muslim columnist

Sensible people who read columns written by Muslims will notice that such columnists do not deliberately attack any religion outside Islam as some of their non-Muslim counterparts often unwarrantedly do by echoing Islamization in a way of crying Wolf where none exists. If Tola Adeniyi were truly a Muslim and has acquired the knowledge of Qur’an and Hadith as he claimed in his notorious article. Why has he not reflected such knowledge in any of his writings in the past three decades?. Who does not know that agents of clandestine agenda often lay claim to false qualifications as a way of justifying their hypocrisy. It is not strange that a Septuagenarian of Tola Adeniyi’s status can use birth in Islam as evidence of his being a Muslim. After all, we know of an octogenarian in the same Ijebu area of Ogun State who was a top Islamic Chieftain in Ijebu-ode Central Mosque but dropped Islam for another Religion at the point of his Death. What is shameful In Tola Adeniyi’s case is his claim to remain a muslim at 74 without any evidence of an iota aof knowledge about Islam. If anybody would advise the Southwest Muslims about their faith and their social lives it is surely not the like of a confused and ignorant person.

Those who perceive themselves as living in Glass houses should be sensible enough not to throw stones at others. That is part of ethics in journalism as a profession. A word is enough for the wise.